Mazzarri: 'Napoli deserved win'

Walter Mazzarri is adamant Napoli had more scoring opportunities and deserved to beat Juventus, though Blerim Dzemaili’s chance “seemed impossible to miss.”

Walter Mazzarri is adamant Napoli had more scoring opportunities and deserved to beat Juventus, though BlerimDzemaili’s chance “seemed impossible to miss.”

The Partenopei fought back from Giorgio Chiellini’s early header to earn a 1-1 draw[12] with GokhanInler’s deflected snapshot.

“I’m content with the way my team played, especially in the second half, which was not easy against such a strong side. It’s a shame for the result, as in the second half I thought Dzemaili’s effort was going in,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.

“I think we deserved all three points, as we created a few more scoring opportunities than Juventus. Never mind. We are doing something phenomenal here and will try to continue until the end. We always try to win, then we see what we achieved.

“We keep dropping points and should’ve won against Sampdoria, plus today after I changed system and caused them a lot of problems, but we’re unlucky at the moment. The proof is Dzemaili’s chance, which seemed impossible to miss.”

This was Napoli’s third consecutive stalemate and leaves them six points adrift of the Serie A leaders.

“We deserved to win against Sampdoria and Juve, so with those four points we would’ve been closer to the leaders and further away from those behind us.”

Mazzarri was clearly irritable and defiant when it was suggested Juve dominated the first half.

“I did not see Juventus as ‘clearly’ superior in the first half. I don’t think Juventus were running the game at all apart from the opening 20 minutes.

“The first half saw Marek Hamsik and Goran Pandev with two very early chances, while Juve had a great chance after their goal with Mirko Vucinic. After that, I don’t recall any Juventus opportunities.”

He made changes at the break, introducing Dzemaili for Miguel Angel Britos and going to a four-man defence.

“I wanted to surprise them a little and I wanted to win, so I changed a few things and we dominated the second half. Christian Maggio started really pushing, we had control of the midfield and Hamsik could pressure Leonardo Bonucci.

“Juventus have world class midfielders who ensure they cover for the relative lack of goals from their strikers, but they operate in a different way to us.

“Pandev used to come off the bench for Pocho Lavezzi and resolved a lot of games in our favour. Pandev has more experience, while Lorenzo Insigne has usually done better when coming off the bench than he did when starting.”

Mazzarri has still not lost hope of the Scudetto, despite the six-point gap and Juve’s advantage now in the head-to-heads.

“If luck goes our way and we can finish our chances better, then we can notch up four or five consecutive victories. I see us play better against everyone except Lazio, so we will try all the way to go as far as possible. It is what we have always said.”